Emina:
Do not give voice to the naysayers. Do not amplify individuals who cling to misinformation, directly or indirectly. Do not amplify problematic or incorrect conceptions about reading instruction. Do not engage in tit-for-tat debates. Do not waste precious time on people who do not want to know better or do better. Do not demean or malign, and do not make people feel less than. Do not make fun of people.
Sadly, we must accept that some people are unlikely to ever change their minds.
My comments: Makes a lot of sense especially when time is finite. I understand but let us look from a different perspective.
Many of the trolls simply leave when I don’t give voice to their tweets. This is true.
However, it is difficult to accept ‘not to amplify problematic or incorrect conception about reading instruction’.
The above is similar to what is going around the world today where observers take photos of victims being beaten. The observers will not stop the beating nor will they report the matter to the authorities. This was not the case 30 years ago or earlier.
Incorrect conception of reading especially coming from those in authority and researchers such as Robert Slavin, Diane Ravitch, Pamela Snow and many others should be amplified. Otherwise parents and teachers will accept them as Gospel truth.
Most of these educators have an ego and refuse to discuss matters which they are unfamiliar with. Because of the position held by such educators (I don’t even know if that is a proper term to use) no one dares to question them as ridiculous as their statements are.
It is true to state that ‘some people are unlikely to ever change their minds’. I have stopped trying to change their minds as that is one of the most difficult things to do. However, I keep restating and sharing posts that I have written as there are always new readers. This is definitely not to ‘demean or malign, or to make people feel less than.’ It is to state my opinion and let readers think for themselves if what I say makes sense.
Many educators say things that were never said by me. Assuming I do not amplify such matters what would readers of such statements think?
Why do such ‘educators’ not apologise and move on?
I have many examples of such ‘educators’ but here are just a few.
Dr. Timothy Shanahan:
In 2015 he had said …
…. NICHD research suggests that when elementary kids have reading problems, they tend to be problems with phonological awareness and decoding about 86% of the time.”
In 2017 he revised his opinion as follows:
“This explanation of dyslexia seems especially pertinent ….. and the only thing I would change in it now is the estimate of the phonological/phonemic awareness role in reading problems. There are some more recent data in relatively large studies suggesting a somewhat lower incidence of these problems at least with some populations; that wouldn't change the overall thrust of this much, but it would be, perhaps, more accurate.”
Note how his words are couched.
On another comment made by me he asked me for evidence to support my statement that consonants should not be taught with extraneous sounds. Now, if I do not keep highlighting this what will readers think? He is one of the ‘Gods of education’ and I am not even a trained teacher. I can only hope that one doctorate student with pick this up and write a research report on this.
You may read more on this here. https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2017/09/winning-losing-and-discovery.html
Robert Slavin:
“…However, I do not think there are many students who could succeed with non-phonetic approaches…”
Most students around the world actually learn to read by analyses when they should be taught to read using phonics. Read more here. https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/04/idiotic-statement-by-dr-robert-slavin.html
Robert Slavin also quoted Lao Tze and said ‘The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step’.
Yes, that is true but if I instruct you to take the first right turn when you arrive at the fork and you turn left instead then a journey of a hundred steps will turn into the journey of a thousand miles. Read more on this here. https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/04/preschool-step-not-journey-robert-slavin.html#more
Pamela Snow:
‘We’ve known for at least a couple of decades now that certain factors and approaches promote the successful transition to literacy in the early years of school. For reasons that are puzzling to the rest of us, though, a large number of education academics don’t seem willing, able and/or interested in engaging with this evidence.’
It is puzzling to me as to why she is not interested in engaging with me when I wrote to her in 2018 and subsequently in 2020 she had the audacity to say "Dear Luqman I am not your on-call response service".
You may get the details here. https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/06/dear-luqman-i-am-not-your-on-call.html#more
‘Sadly, we must accept that some people are unlikely to ever change their minds.’ (Emina)
Yes, I accept that ‘some people are unlikely to ever change their minds.’ However, I would like to keep reminding them and when subsequent research reports emerge they may reluctantly accept their mistake as done by Timothy Shanahan above.
No comments:
Post a Comment